Monday, February 27, 2006

Warna Colour

TokKu – Your curiosity on the particular colour “virgin yellow” of Proton Saga brings our attention to one nick from Trengganu. He is more of orang Kelumpur now staying a stone throw away from Rasta where we had the last gathering. He can be seen more often at Masjid Attaqwa of TTDI. I still remember his Peugeot car with the number plate of WNI – Wan Nik Ismail. His official car was the elongated proton which looked like two cut proton cars ( proton potong) being welded together ( which may not passed the Puspakom now.) His early days were involved in serving as Dungun’s DO and the General Manager of Ketengah. He had served and contributed a lot to Trengganu and to the country. So, we cannot make fun of him since he may sue us for libel and slender. I hope my grand uncle will not send such a registered letter from his legal firm. My mum sewed baju Melayu for hari raya. She liked the green colour and the baju will always be the shades of green- Ija pucuk pisang, ija pala itek/ija lalat ija, Ija Pati Pah, Ija Petronas. Nowadays, the colour often becomes the theme of the wedding reception. Everything in the hall / hotel is green even the drink (look like like Fanta drink ) Every body wears the same colour to look like Boria team or Dikir Barat Group. It would be better if everyone were to wear all the shades of greens, it is more colourful. The colour black will be referred to the Wok Bottom Black (hitam patat kuali). One has to wear the all black baju melayu for the investiture function except for one State which allowed the wearing all other colours but not the royal sedondon. So, don’t don’t wear baju sedondon or one may not be allowed into the balirong and the medal will be posted to you. Merah jambu is also known as merah samar. Samar /samor also means blur. So, there is the blur trap (Jerangkap Samar) which is the booby trap which is different from the trap for the boobs. Water apple or jambu has a different meaning in certain boy’s residential college (as kodok means different thing in certain girl’s residential college). The jambu had evolved into from the Prophet Lot’s lot, to the queer to the homos and now to the gay. These jambu boys are often much sought after for the annual concerts and dramas in the boy’s school /residential college to play the role of the girls. One cannot imagine of the Thai jambus where some are even more beautiful than the real ,original female . When they felt that the beauty contest is unfair judged, instead of pulling hairs, they will punch up like the Muang Thai Siamese boxing. Some said that they are also very hot since they take lots of Tom Yam Kung.( That’s what I heard but never ever experienced)Many Malay children don’t know the Malay term for the colour “orange”. The younger generation will just call it “oren” but actually, it is “jingga.” So, the next time the waitress asked ”nak minum apa?” - You should ask for “Air Jingga Segar”. If it is not available, then ask for “ Carambola Juice” or for the “Stoned Water Apple Juice”. One doesn’t have to “mencarut” ( talk vulgarly) when asking for “carrot juice”( air carut) if it is called “air lobak jingga.” The other colour is purple/lilac which the younger generation will call it "perpel" but it is actually “ungu” in Malay . If you don’t know how to pronounce it, this word doesn’t rhyme with Cik Gu but it rhymes with dungu, (stupid). Earlier, I was wondering why mangosteen is not allowed in hotels since it has not offensive smell. Later, I realized that it has an offensive “colour” especially when it stained the white sheet into Dunhill red. The natural purple colour is from the kamunting fruits or the senduduk flower. The best Malay pantuns used creatively the local fruits and colours as their shadow clauses. The best pantun should rhyme in every corresponding syllable , words and sentences. The modern pantun just rhyme at the end of the sentence ONLY. How I wish the local hip hopper and the rappers can create such rhymed lyrics. It is a challenge to Too Phat (Terlalu Gemuk or Very Cool) to compose Malay rap songs in that manner instead of just sounding the same at the end of the sentence . The Melaka State Government had recently launched the One Million Pantuns Project and it should also take note of it. Here is an example of a good Malay pantun which should be rightly called a pantun. If it does not meet this specification and only rhyme at the end , it is not a pantun but should be called just as “puntung” as the case of “puntung rokok” ( all the filtered cigarette butts are the same !! ) . On the other hand , if it rhyme partly , it should be called a “pontoon” which floats as a bridge but not a real bridge.Bu-ah lang-sat ku-ning men-ce-lahSen-duduk ti-dak ber-bu-nga la-giSu-dah da-pat ga-ding ber-tu-ahTan-duk ti-dak ber-gu-na la-giThe colour blue and yellow have different cultural context. . The European royalty and aristocracy will be from the blue blood but the Malay will be from yellow blood. Only Mahsuri from Langkawi has white blood – may be she was suffering from leukemia when she was stabbed. One the other hand , the colour blue when attached to a film is related to the yellow culture and the premier show is in the Red light area. When there is a blue car behind your kampung house, it does not mean you’re well off but a lazy bump, since the belukar ( secondary jungle) is not cleared. . So much so, until “ada ulau berlengkau dalam belukau.” as expressed in the Melaka pantun. What is brown ? The skin colour of the Malay is described as sawo matang ( ripen ciku fruit). Some have off white/ yellowish skin or kuning langsat (dukung yellow). Others especially in the coastal area like “Stone Raft” are rather dark as “Wok Bottom Darkness” patat kuali. However, there are the white people –orang putih (omputih) Mat Salleh or in other State known as Orang Balau or orang bule (Indonesian). In Indonesia, they don’t plant pokok koko but they planted pokok coklat and pokok karet. ( Getah). In the sixties, a sexy and voluptuous lady was described as “bergetah” - which in Indonesian , it should be “berkaret” (rusty). It kept one wondering which part of the lady is “bergetah “and which part is “berkaret”? The old Malay word for brown was perang ( pronounced as “pair” + “rung”) and that’s was before koko were introduced in Banting ( Selangor) and Sungai Tong (Trengganu) . Perang when pronounced as “ purr +rung“ is war and that’s when the bring out their parang panjang in the olden days. It will end when one party put up the bendera putih ( white flag). There is one colour which is known as the “wiped out red” - merah padam. That is when one is very angry or blushing . We don’t like to be in the red in our account ( akaun merah) and after a long outstation trip, the husband would be frustrated if the wife put up the red flag ( bendera jepun). What are the colour of the rainbow? Most of us can still remember them as VIBGYOR or as Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain or Ring Out Your Grandmother Boots In Vinegar, i.e., Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet.. Sometimes, in his Blog Tok Ku really “ showed his colour” on certain issue. But in malay language , we don’t say Tok Ku “tunjuk warna” but tunjuk belang nya ( show his stripes) excluding his nose which is not stripped (hidung belang) but rather beautiful and sharp like hidung belalang.

1 Comments:

As I was surfing around today looking for detailed info on modern baby furniture I somehow ended up on your page. Oh well, back to surfing and I am sure I will find what I am looking for, and should you ever need information about modern baby furniture, then stop by for a look. Thanks for the post.